7 Abraham Lincoln 7had won a huge victory in capturing Vicksburg, Mississippi,
in July 1863. At last Lincoln had found a man who could
execute large-scale, coordinated offensives that Lincoln
had conceived. As commander in chief, Lincoln combined
statecraft and the overall direction of armies with an effec-
tiveness that increased year by year. His achievement is all
the more remarkable in view of his lack of training and
experience in the art of warfare.
As president, he was at first reluctant to adopt an abo-
litionist policy. He especially feared that an abolitionist
program might drive the border states to the Confederacy,
but on Jan. 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation. Although it applied only to those parts of
the country actually under Confederate control and
brought freedom to fewer than 200,000 slaves, it indi-
cated that the Lincoln government had added freedom to
reunion as a war aim. However, it took the Thirteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—which Lincoln had
seen become a part of the Republican Party’s platform of
the 1864 election—to end slavery completely.
To win the war, Lincoln had to have popular support
from a variety of divergent interest groups in the North,
not just in the opposition party—divided among peace
Democrats, often referred to as Copperheads, and war
Democrats—but within his own Republican Party.
Considering the dangers and provocations of the time, he
was quite liberal in his treatment of political opponents
and the opposition press. He was by no means the dictator
critics often accused him of being, though his suspension
of the writ of habeas corpus disturbed many.
Two main factions arose among the Republicans
regarding the conduct of the war: the “Radicals” and
the “Conservatives.” Lincoln was inclined toward the
Conservatives but strove to maintain his leadership over
both. In appointing his cabinet, he chose his several rivals